Raising Their Voices: Women’s Mobilization in Nepal’s Conflict and Transition By Vanessa Daurer Submitted to Central European University Department of International Relations and European Studies In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in International Relations and European Studies Supervisor: Kristin Makszin Word Count: 17 229 CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2014 Abstract When the peace talks were initiated in Nepal in 2006, between the Seven Party Alliance and the Maoists after the decade long People’s War (1996-2006), women were excluded from the peace processes, despite their significant contributions in bringing the two conflicting parties to the peace negotiations. As had been the case in many conflict countries around the world, women were excluded from peace talks and decision-making procedures and pushed back into traditional gender hierarchies. Unlike in many other post-conflict societies, women in Nepal refused to be pushed back and excluded by mobilizing themselves and protesting strongly through e.g. rallies and campaigns. I examine what factors influenced women’s movements’ active engagement in the peace process and in achieving policy changes in the aftermath of conflict, such as a quota of 33% women representation in the Constituent Assembly. The empirical findings, based on semi-structured interviews with women leaders, NGO-leaders, women activists and female parliamentarians, suggest that there had been three important preconditions to women’s active mobilization during the peace process: 1) women’s organization and activism prior to conflict, 2) committed and conscious women leaders, and 3) women’s networks and unity on security related issues. These networks cut across societal divisions and the women’s movement actively engaged with key policymakers and state stakeholders, which became a critical part of women’s repertoire of actions in contentious politics. Nepal’s women’s movement demonstrates several generalizable characteristics of a strong social movement which I claim enabled women to overcome post-conflict challenges. CEU eTD Collection i Acknowledgments There are many great people I had the privilege to have by my side during this research process; family, friends, and a very helpful international community. First, and foremost, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to my academic supervisor, Kristin Makszin, without her this research would not have been possible. She opened the door to inter- disciplinary research, allowed exploration and encouraged me to think in creative ways, through which she also reminded me of all the things I came to enjoy about academia. Her flexibility, academic and analytical sharpness, and above all her enduring and genuine engagement have been a stronghold during this research endeavor. She has been a great teacher, both inside and outside the lecture halls, and a role model as an engaged, committed and inter-disciplinary scholar. Equally, I am very grateful to the open and kind women’s movement I encountered in Nepal, who warmly welcomed me and generously shared their insights, experiences and lessons learned during their fights for an equal society. For sharing their wisdom and inspiration, I would like to extend my sincerest gratitude to Lily Thapa, Founder of Women for Human Rights; Rita Thapa, Founder of Nagarik Aawaz and Tewa; Anita Thapoliya, Lawyer at Legal Aid and Consultancy Center; Ranju Thakur, CA member CPN-UML; Shobha, Shrestha, Founder and Executive Chair of Women, Peace and Democracy- Nepal; Durga Sob, President of the Feminist Dalit Organization; Chandtara Sheikh, Chairperson of the National Women’s Commission Nepal; Mohana Ansari, National Women’s Commission Nepal; Meena Sharma, Project Manager for Women, Peace and Security, Search for Common Ground; Saloni Singh, Executive Chair of DidiBahini; Susan Risal, Chief Executive Chair of Nagarik Aawaz; Bandana Rana, President and founding member of SAATHI; Sharada Pokharel, President of the Women’s Security Pressure Group; Irada Parajuli Gautum, Founder and Chairperson of Aawaaj; Kaipl Kafle, Executive Director of Institute of Human Rights Communication Nepal and Editor-in-Chief for e-Nepalkhabar Online News-portal; Sharada Jnawali, Peace Building Advisor at the Asian Development Bank; Durga Ghimire, Founder of ABC- Nepal; Pushpa Bhusal, Member of the Nepali Congress Party, the Constituent Assembly & former member of the Interim-Constitution Drafting Committee (2007); and Babita Basnet, President of Media Advocacy Group. I would also like to thank Sadhana Shrestha, Excutive Director of Tewa, for inviting me to the National Anti-Rape Campaign rally on May 15th. For a few hours I got to experience head on the continuous fight of the Women’s movement in Nepal. Many thanks as well to Deepti Khakurel, at IDEA’s office in Kathmandu, for providing excellent insights and publications to when I first arrived in Nepal. I would likewise like to thank Ratna Shrestha, Tara Upreti, Lauren Menger, Marcus Haraldsson, and Casey McKenzie who all have been of great help. Furthermore, I am grateful the Central European University for providing funding and material. CEU eTD Collection Finally, it is difficult doing justice to all the wonderful people that contributed to this project. I sincerely hope that this study will represent the women leaders, the Nepali women’s movement and their efforts, dedication and achievements in an accurate and illustrative way. Thank you ii Table of Contents Abstract ..................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgments .................................................................................................... ii Introduction .............................................................................................................. 1 Women Getting to the Peace Table in Nepal .................................................................... 2 Women, Gender and Conflict Literature meets Social Movement Theory .................. 3 Research Design & Field Work in Nepal ........................................................................... 7 Structure of the Thesis .......................................................................................................... 8 1. Women’s Movements and Political Transition in Nepal .................................... 10 1.1. Brief Historical Overview of Nepal’s Women’s Movement pre 1990’s ............... 10 1.2. The Popular Jana Andolan I and Restoration of Parliamentary Democracy ....... 14 1.3. The Mobilization of Women in the 1990’s ............................................................... 16 1.4. Nepal’s Women’s Movements and the International Community ........................ 19 1.5. Committed and Conscious Women Leaders ............................................................ 23 1.6. Chapter conclusion ....................................................................................................... 27 2. Women, the Maoist Conflict and the Peace Process in Nepal ........................... 29 2.1. Women’s Victimhood and Agency during Conflict ................................................ 29 2.2. Uniting for Peace: How Women built Networks .................................................... 33 2.3. Uniting for Inclusion: Women’s Strategic Response to the Exclusion from the Peace Talks ............................................................................................................................ 37 2.4. Chapter conclusion ....................................................................................................... 41 3. Women’s Movements’ Activism and Policy Changes in Nepal ......................... 43 3.1. Engaging for Peace: How Women’s Networks developed Mechanisms to Produce Policy Change ....................................................................................................... 43 3.2. Engagement with Policymakers .................................................................................. 46 3.3. Mobilization of Social Capital: Peace-building at Grassroots Level...................... 49 3.4. Chapter conclusion ....................................................................................................... 51 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 53 CEU eTD Collection Bibliography ............................................................................................................ 56 Interview list ............................................................................................................ 59 iii Introduction “Are you not ashamed of this? Look around and see who is sitting around the peace table, only men? Are you not ashamed of yourselves?” A woman inquiring while knocking her fist on the table, intruding a High Level Task Force meeting composed of 12-15 men, when the peace process had been initiated in December 2006, in Nepal (from an informal talk). Although women had been heavily contributing in bringing the Maoists and government to the peace table in Nepal, they were themselves being excluded from the peace talks as well as the peace process. Once again, as observed repeatedly in many other parts of the world’s conflicts, such as in El Salvador, Mozambique, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and many more, women were absent in the formal peace talks and excluded from the political and decision-making processes in the aftermath